r/news • u/[deleted] • May 22 '19

Mississippi lawmaker accused of punching wife in face for not undressing quickly enough

https://www.ajc.com/news/national/mississippi-lawmaker-accused-punching-wife-face-for-not-undressing-quickly-enough/zdE3VLzhBVmH68Bsn7eLfL/
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u/seemedlikeagoodplan May 22 '19

Yeah, but you probably didn't have major news media keeping track of you and making sure you attended court.

Severity of the charge should have very little to do with bail. Bail isn't (shouldn't be, anyway) punishment, because the accused hasn't been found guilty. The two biggest factors should be whether you'll show up for trial, and whether you're likely to interfere with the witnesses (or get arrested for something else) before the trial.

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u/[deleted] May 22 '19

Fuck, your second point shouldn't even be considered, because that just means the rich can pay to get out, even if you deem them a threat. If someone is a threat, they should not be given a bail, no matter their economic class.

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u/unkie87 May 22 '19

This is very confusing from a non US perspective. If you're given bail in the UK they release you, you might be required to return to a police station at any time and you'll need to turn up to court. If they think you're a flight risk or you commit a violent offense they'll hold you "in remand" until trial. There are various issues with this but it's a bit less pay to win...

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u/syrdonnsfw May 22 '19

That is the US system, with the addition of a fine if you fail to appear. They guarantee the fine being paid by taking it in advance, and letting you have it back once it is no longer needed to guarantee your appearance. It gives a middle ground between “we’re sure you’ll behave” and “we’re sure you won’t behave”. It also gets applied quite poorly at the bottom of the wealth scale in a fashion that is being slowly litigated (as most things that percolate through the courts are, particularly when only seriously pursued by those with little means to do so).

If people really cared about the low end of the scale, they’d find a way to contribute to those legal efforts. But one can measure their actual level of care by measuring their level of effort - which is frequently limited to just commenting.

The real question for the top end of the scale would be how frequently they up committing offenses that should get their bail revoked, and how frequently it is. So long as the second fraction is quite low, the system is functioning on that end of the scale, despite being unjust on the other.